General“Well I liked how we came out in the second half with a different mindset. The beginning of the game basically killed us, we had a tough time recovering from being down early in the game. But I do like how our team responded in the second half, we didn’t quit, we did better on the boards in the second half. There are a lot of things to take from this game. In one game I liked how our team responded to what Stanford brought onto the floor. Now we just have to be ready to bounce back. We have a quick turnaround before we play Cal, and we just have to be ready to play a solid game.”

On The Slow Start“We were tentative; we were almost trying too hard at times in the wrong way. We were forcing shots into two defenders when in previous games we would just hit the open player. I think their size bothered us, their size is something that we cannot simulate in practice. All of our practice guys are home for Christmas vacation so we miss having them definitely for this game. They didn’t do anything that we necessarily have not seen, just their athleticism, their strength, and their size really put us on our heels at the beginning of the game.”

On Not Having The Practice Guys To Prepare For Stanford“It definitely was a factor. Like I said, you can’t simulate that against each other, you can’t simulate their size. We have some big and tall practice guys that come in and obviously over Christmas they are off doing their own thing. I thought it was a factor, but it is not an excuse by any means. It would have helped definitely to practice against what we were going to see against Stanford because I thought we showed in the second half that we could play with them at times but at that time they had the confidence and they knew they were going to win.”

On If The Play In The Last 30 Minutes Will Help In The Long Run“I believe it does help us. I think you have to take positives out of that game. We didn’t play our best by any means. We didn’t do a great job of hitting open shots. I felt like we were rushed and we didn’t have our feet set. But you have to look at what we did do well, we stayed with them, we were tough in the last 30 minutes, we did a much better job of rebounding in the last 30 minutes. I felt like we did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the last 30 minutes than we did in the first 10. The one thing that has to get better for us to win games is our free-throw percentage, we have to do a better job of shooting from the line consistently just having the expectation that we should be shooting 75% every night and especially against really good teams.”

On How The Team Will Respond From A Loss“I think it will show a lot of character as a team, who we are as a team and what we are all about. If we get back to who we were whether it was after a win or after a loss. We are going to keep this game in perspective that is what we are going to do. This only hurts you if you let it. Other than that I think we can take a lot of positives out of this game than there are negatives. And there are a lot of things that we can control which is a good thing”

On Turnovers after Steals“It is something we have really done this year is doing some of that. Some of it is understanding the flow of the game, understanding how important the possession is. We were having trouble scoring so once we got the ball we needed to make sure we got the shot that we wanted. I think that because we were not scoring we were trying to force it a little too much trying to get the easiest shot that we can get as fast as we can get it. Sometimes that is the right answer, but not always the right answer. As a player and a coach you just have to have a feel of the game and understand the flow of the game. It just depends, sometimes you get that steal and you just want the possession, you want to make Stanford play defense for 30 seconds to hopefully wear them down. I thought our defense did some nice things, we held Stanford to 57 points, you are not going to hold Stanford to much less than that. We just have to figure out how to score a little better.”

On If Arielle Roberson Was Surprised By Stanford’s Physical Play“I think she was at the beginning but I think she quickly understood what she could do and how she could score. She was presenting her chest too much to the defense and opening up too much. She has a nice little hook shot over the shoulder and that is what she started going through in the second half. I was impressed with how Ariel responded, she didn’t get down on herself she kept at it and I think that is the mark of a player that will be very good for us in the future.”

Colorado Players

Chucky Jeffery, Sr., G

On Slow Start“I think we were being kind of tentative. Like coach said, we can’t simulate that type of team in practice so some of the things we did see in practice we are taking away and we weren’t being as aggressive as we should have. We were hesitating and things like that. We weren’t playing our basketball.”

On Playing Better Down The Stretch“We started to catch on a lot. They started to switch a lot of screens, but we just had to make reads at that point. We knew we had to push the ball because once they got set they were better defenders. Once we catch them on the run when no one is paying attention, they have to scramble. We tried to push the ball up the floor more and attack the rim.”

On Being Too Hyped Up For The Game“No, I don’t think we were too hyped up. We were being tentative. We were going up and hesitating on layups and things like that. That is when they were able to recover and block those shots. They are a good defensive team but we just have to be ready to play at the beginning of the game.”

On When They Felt That They Were Getting Back Into The Game“Definitely in the second half around the 18-, 17-minute mark. We just came out and started to play hard. We started to give effort; we weren’t worried about the last play. We were diving after balls and upping our pressure a little bit. We just kept on pressuring them and trying to get them out of their rhythm.”

On Believing They Could Get Back Into The Game Down By 12 Late“I don’t think we ever stopped believing, but it was at that point where, ‘okay, gather ourselves and we could cut his lead, we just have to get stops.’”

Arielle Roberson, Fr., F

On Stanford’s Inside Game“I think we were pretty certain on what they would do. Double teams here and there. They’re big bodies and I don’t think we have faced that type of height and strength in the preseason. That is probably why it gave us more of a challenge. We don’t really get that in practice. Like coach said, it was kind of like a shocker. Once we settled down and played our game and not do anything out of the ordinary, that is when we started to get our flow.”

On Trying To Come Back Against A Top Ranked Team“I think it is tough in general. When you are down, it is tough to come back. I think it is really hard to do that against a team like Stanford, one of the top teams in the country. If we want to have a better shot at that then we can’t put ourselves in that hole.”

On Turning The Game Into A Positive“Every experience is a learning experience. You can always take something away. I think in this game we learned a lot about ourselves and the way we should react or shouldn’t react. Just because they are a bigger team and their name is Stanford, then we can’t play. If anything, we should believe more in ourselves. The second half is a great example of our ability. Once we finally bought into the whole belief of ‘we got this,’ then I think that is when everything turns around and we can take that into Cal and Utah.”

On Cal They are also a very tough team, but I still believe that we can hang with them and beat them and I don’t think that will leave our minds. It is going to be really tough and I think the most challenging part will be mentally, but you can always learn from this game and carry that along to the next game and stay focused and ready.

Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer

General“You know, first of all, we had really good leadership on our team. We had to live with that (loss to UConn) for a week. Joslyn and Chiney and Mikaela, our captain, all have been working really hard in practice every day. We knew coming here it would be a battle. I thought we jumped on them, and it was an extremely physical game. Our team responded really well.”

On game play“I think it’s very unfortunate myself. We battled, but I don’t like that kind of game. I’ll focus on the basketball stuff, I think that overall, women’s basketball, we want to see more athleticism. We have a great player in Chiney, and I think we have a great player in Amber with quickness, and they have great players. Overall, I just think our team responded to the challenge. I’m really proud of how we came out and got after it.”

On overcoming loss to UConn in tonight’s win“We’ve had a lot of success, so it’s the fact that we did so well. We had a lot of confidence. We’ve been in this situation before and they responded very well. We learned from it. It was very painful, but we were ready to play. We kind of had it in our claw for a week. Colorado’s had a great preseason, and we came in and kind of took it to them the way some teams have taken it to us.”